I am always happy to find alternative applications of creativity. Today’s focus is on Acer or, more specifically, on Acer’s so-called Linux notebooks. Shipped exlusively in Europe (as far as I can tell), they attract interest by being cheaper than the version shipped with some version of Windows. Currently, the difference in price weighs in at 47.01 € at Amazon Germany (that’s, very roughly, 10% of the full price).
And, of course, they come with Linux pre-installed. So that’s fine for basic usage, even if it takes a little getting used to for the more Windows- savvy people. Right?
Let’s take a closer look. Acer’s Linux distribution of choice appears to be Linpus Linux (a Fedora fork developed by Linpus Technologies of Taiwan). Their website is down right now (I wonder…), but from what I gather from the rest of the web, Linpus comes in several flavors, among them a desktop edition and a server edition. The desktop edition is based on KDE 3.4 et cetera et cetera, so nothing really surprising there. Even if Linpus is rather unusual, it’s probably decent enough. Right? Right? Well… Guess again. Read the full post »